The co-chairs of the Cleveland Community Police Commission asked Mayor Justin Bibb to remove Commissioner Teri Wang, alleging in a letter that her “uncollaborative, adversarial and accusatory actions create an unsafe work environment, and we fear for the City’s liability, our staff, and the community.”
The Community Police Commission (CPC) co-chairs, John Adams and Sharena Zayed, sent the letter Wednesday to the mayor, citing 11 examples of alleged “malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance and a gross neglect of duty.”
Wang did not respond to Signal Cleveland’s requests for comment before publication.
The commission co-chairs are accusing Wang of grabbing the arm of another commissioner; disrupting meetings; intimidating commissioners, staff and community members; and harassing staff. Accusations also include “harassing public officials” and “engaging in inappropriate behavior with the public.”
The commission has been discussing removing Wang since January. They removed her as chair of the Rules Committee in February and removed her from all committees she was part of in May.
The latest incident, according to the letter, occurred on Tuesday. Wang showed up to a meeting of the Police Accountability Committee and asked where she could sit. The committee co-chair said Wang could sit in seats for the public, but she refused and sat at the table with the other commissioners, the letter states.
“When told that the meeting could not take place if she remained at the table, she refused,” the letter stated. “Commissioner Wang stated that she intends to use the meeting to make a case to the public as to why the motion to remove her from all CPC committee work was improper, admitting that her intention was to disrupt a lawful meeting,” a violation of the city charter.
Police were called. Wang told them she would not leave willingly and would have to be removed, according to the letter. Instead, committee members canceled the meeting.
The letter to Bibb alleges that Wang’s behavior has escalated and is impeding the work of the commission.
“Powerless to remove her on our own, we are pleading with you to help us return balance to our organization and to give us the ability to perform the police accountability work the City entrusted us to do,” the co-chairs said in the letter.
Signal Cleveland reached out to Mayor Bibb’s office. A spokesperson confirmed they, “received the letter just a few hours ago and are reviewing it.”
“Additionally, we have hired outside counsel to review various complaints that have been made relative to the Community Police Commission,” the spokesperson said.
Wang accused of intimidation and harassment
The six-page letter also alleges that Wang grabbed Commissioner Zayed’s arm “as she attempted to leave an increasingly volatile discussion” after a committee meeting, and, on a different occasion, referred to another commissioner as an “opportunistic bitch.”
Examples of Wang intimidating commissioners, staff and community members include her refusing to leave the room for an Internal Discipline Committee executive session where members were discussing the potential discipline of a public official. Wang was not a member of the committee.
The letter also says Wang “has attempted to intimidate staff and other commissioners via cell phone recordings, often positioning her device in their faces, invading their personal space.”
The co-chairs accuse Wang of harassing staff, saying the CPC office was shut down the week of March 21 because of “concerns for the mental health and physical safety of the staff.”
On March 20, Interim Executive Director Jason Goodrick “had to lock himself in his office to avoid her harassment,” the letter says, adding that Wang “has begun a campaign of harassment, intimidation and bullying” against the CPC’s attorney, Martin Bielat, who splits his hours between the CPC and the city law department. Wang “accuses him of conspiring with the Co-Chairs and the Law Department in a malicious manner.”
The letter lists several city officials Wang allegedly has harassed via email, and this has “made building trust extremely difficult for the Commission.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with an additional comment from a spokesperson from Mayor Bibb’s office.
